Moonlight dev crew brings Silverlight to Android

This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Recently, Microsoft has been raising eyebrows by delivering mobile apps for iOS devices. There’s that dead-sexy Bing app for the iPad, the slick Live Messenger app, and even OneNote for iOS. Android users haven’t received the same kind of attention yet, however, but at least one Microsoft technology is headed to Google’s mobile OS: Silverlight.

The same group who put together Moonlight — which brought Silverlight to Linux desktops — has been working feverishly to produce an Android version. Amazingly, in less than a week the Moonlight team was able to build a working version and demonstrate it at MIX11 in Las Vegas. Developer Jeffrey Stedfast says that there’s plenty of work left to be done, but is clearly excited by the team’s progress so far. While the demo video after the break isn’t going to blow your mind, it’s still very cool to see Silverlight content being played back on an Android device.

In addition to the initial demonstration video, Stedfast has now shared a second which shows Moonlight for Android rendering 3D transforms (it’s after the break as well). It’s an impressive display, especially considering the incredibly short amount of time the team has been at work on the Android port. And the way Microsoft is pushing Silverlight for Windows Phone 7, this might just become incredibly handy towards the end of the year when Mango arrives and WP7 developers can go hog wild — since you may just have a way to play with some of their creations on Android.

For now, you’ll have to make do with watching Stedfast’s demo videos, which look very smooth running on the Motorola Xoom. Frame rates bounce between 37 and 55, but overall the playback looks pretty darn good.